The Wakemans Grove Church of the Brethren traces its beginning to September 22, 1900, when Pleasant View Council appointed J. Ozias Wakeman to solicit funds to build a church house on his land. Since the building of the house at Wakemans Grove the pulpit has been supplied by a number of ministers, among whom are: B.W. Neff, D.P. Wine, John H. Garber, Charles Nesselrodt, Oscar Bowman, L.D. Wakeman, Samuel Long, Lawrence M. Helsley, J. William Harpine, Charles H. Wakeman, H. Early Wakeman, Olin B. Landis, Bennie E. Landis, L.S. Miller, Stanley R. Wampler, John F. Graham, Joseph S. Rittenhouse, Dale Varner, Jimmy Robinson, A. Gene Knicely, and Charles “Chip” Leatherman.

First mention of Love Feast was in 1905. As many as 300 communicants are said to have taken part in early communion services. Surrounding area homes were opened to the people, each accommodating as many as 25 or 30 overnight guests.

On January 1, 1976, the church moved forward into a full time pastoral program with Rev. Jimmy Robinson serving as the church’s first full time pastor.

The church web site states: “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1: 103). To see more about the history of the church and the Shenandoah Valley area, visit their web site (below).

Contact Information

The church address is: 668 Wakemans Grove Road, Edinburg, Virginia 22824. The church phone number is(540) 984-8383 Their email is: wgcob at shentel.net

Directions: Here is the map on their web site.

Shenandoah Valley, VA – Yummmmy! It’s that time of year again. Mark the date for some great oyster suppers in the Valley. Here are two oyster meals to get your started. Open to the public, they both happen to be fundraisers.

**** 6th Annual Shrimp and Catfish Dinner ****
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Community event sponsored by the Rotary Club of Woodstock

Time: 4-7 p.m.
Place: At The Woodstock Armory, Hoover Avenue
Woodstock, VA
Details:- (540)331-7219

**** Oysters with Obenshain ****
With special guest Gov. Bob McDonnell
Thursday, April 29, 2010

Time: 5:30 p.m.
Place: The Stone’s Barn on South Main St., Harrisonburg, VA

Details will be forthcoming:
(540) 437-1451 (district office)
(804) 698-7526 (Richmond)
Mark Obenshain Website

Churches who want to promote their upcoming oyster suppers, can email the details to: editor@7Bends.com, and we’ll post them for you free of charge.

Charles Town, WV – And they’re off! The Shenandoah Valley Music Festival (SVMF) Guild is sponsoring a Derby Day Trip to the Charles Town Races and Slots.

Celebrate the “Run for the Roses” with the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival Guild. The Guild, the Shenandoah Music Festival’s friends group, is celebrating the nation’s most famous horse race with a bus trip to Charles Town Races and Slots on Saturday, May 1, 2010.

The track is a magnificent treat for all the senses. Upon arrival, the guests will take their places in the air conditioned comfort of the glass walled Skyline Terrace, just feet from the track where whey can watch the area’s fastest horses work out or see them churn the dirt as they sprint to the finish line, all the while relaxing and partaking of the restaurant’s sumptuous epic prime rib and seafood buffet.

As a guest, you can relax in the best seats in the house and watch the track’s full racing card and when the time comes, you can watch the race from Churchill Downs – each table has its own individual television set. Want a break from the horses? The casino offers hundreds of different slot games to test your luck – and you can leave all the driving to someone else. Don’t forget to purchase your official commemorative Kentucky Derby glass while you’re there!

Tickets are $85 per person, which includes the bus trip, the epic buffet dinner, a complimentary race card, the opportunity to wager on and watch the televised Derby, and the chance to wager on Charles Town’s local races and visit the track’s slots casino.

Reserve by April 15
The cutoff date for trip reservations is April 15, 2010. The bus will leave the Lowe’s parking lot in Woodstock at 3 p.m. on May 1, and it will return at about 10:30 p.m.

The trip is open to the public. All are welcome and invited. All the net proceeds of the event will go to the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival (SVMF). To make reservations, call the Festival office at (540) 459-3396.

The Shenandoah Valley Music Festival is a not-for-profit organization supported in part by grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Shenandoah County and by hundreds of individuals and businesses throughout Virginia. It presents a summertime concert series each year on the grounds of the Shrine Mont Camp and Conference Center in Orkney Springs, Va.

Visit the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival web site.
Visit the Charles Town Races and Slots web site.

Waynesboro, VA – On March 23 in Waynesboro, DuPont Community Credit Union (DCCU) and Member Investment Services (MIS) will be conducting a workshop on Social Security entitled: “Social Security – Understanding Your Options and Benefits.”

Mr. Edwin “Ned” Sledge, Public Affairs Specialist of the Social Security Administration, will be leading the workshop to discuss the social security program, and answer questions regarding social security benefits. Topics to be covered include:

- How benefits are determined
- Considerations for when to start benefits
- Calculating spouse and widow benefits
- Working after receiving benefits
- Medicare considerations

The workshop will be Tuesday, March 23, 2010, from 6 to 7 p.m. at the DuPont Community Credit Union in Waynesboro, located at 104 Lucy Lane.

For more information, or to reserve a seat for the workshop, eMail: MISdccu at lpl.com, or call: (540) 946.3200, Extension x3338 or x3358.

Disclaimer: Securities, Advisory Services, and Insurance Products Offered Through LPL Financial and its Affiliates. Member FINRA/SIPC. Not NCUA Insured. No Credit Union Guarantee. May Lose Value.

DuPont Community Credit Union, a state chartered, federally insured credit union, is one of 194 credit unions across the Commonwealth. The Credit Union is affiliated with the Credit Union National Association. Credit unions provide members with savings, loans, and other consumer and business financial services.

Who can join DCCU?

The members of DuPont Community Credit Union share a common bond: they live, work, worship, or attend school in the Virginia counties or cities of:

Augusta
Rockingham
Rockbridge
Highland
Bath
Shenandoah
Staunton
Waynesboro
Harrisonburg
Lexington
Buena Vista

Visit the DCCU web site.

Curious about the term “The Ides of March”? Though the legacy of The Ides of March will likely continue to be linked with William Shakespeare, and his play Julius Caesar, “ides” was the term given to the 15th day of any month back in Roman times.

The Ides of March (Latin: Idus Martias) is the name of March 15 in the Roman calendar. The Roman calendar organized its months around threedays. Each served as a reference point for counting the other days:

- Kalends (1st day of the month)
- Nones (the 7th day in March, May, July, and October; the 5th in the other months)
- Ides (the 15th day in March, May, July, and October; the 13th in the other months)

The remaining, unnamed days of the month were identified by counting backwards from the Kalends, Nones, or the Ides. For example, March 3 would be V Nones -5 days before the Nones. (Note: the Roman method of counting days was inclusive; in other words, the Nones would be counted as one of the 5 days).

The Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god, Mars, and often military parades were held. In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was killed.

In 709 AUC (or 44 B.C.), Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman Senate – led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. According to Plutarch, Caesar was warned by a seer to be on his guard against a “great peril” on the Ides of March.

According to wikipedia, “on his way to the Theatre of Pompey (where he would be killed), Caesar saw the seer and joked “Well, the Ides of March have come,” to which the seer replied “Ay, they have come, but they are not gone.” This meeting is reflected in William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned to “beware the Ides of March” (in Act 1, Scene II).

According to the history books, also on March 15, 1917:

- Nicholas II of Russia abdicated his throne.

- Andrew Jackson, the 7th U.S. President of the United States of America, was born in a log cabin in Waxhaw, South Carolina on March 15, 1767. Jackson became the first man from an impoverished background to be elected President, serving from 1829 to 1837. He died in 1845.

Middletown, VA – Another Jimmy Stewart classic makes it to the stage in the Shenandoah Valley — Wayside Theatre Artistic Director Warner Crocker today announced the cast for the final production of the 2009-2010 Season for the Pulitzer Prize play Harvey.  The play begins performances March 27 and opens on March 28, continuing a run through April 24.  The production is sponsored by Royal Oak Computers.

The Play: Harvey

The comedy, Harvey, is a comedy written by Mary Chase.  It’s  the story of likeable man and his imaginary friend, ”Harvey”, a 6-foot, three-and-a-half-inch-tall rabbit.  Elwood P. Dowd starts to introduce his imaginary friend, Harvey, a pooka, to guests at a society party.

His society-obsessed sister, Veta, has seen as much of his eccentric behavior as she can tolerate. She decides to have him committed to a sanitarium to spare her daughter, Myrtle Mae, and their family from future embarrassment.  When they arrive at the sanitarium, due to a comedy of errors, the doctors commit Veta instead of Elwood, but when the truth comes out, the search is  on for Elwood and his invisible companion.

The Cast

The large cast of Harvey includes many Wayside Theatre audience’s veteran favorites:

Returning to recreate the role of Elwood Dowd is Larry Dahlke (Southern Crossroads, Hank Williams: Lost Highway, Smoke on the Mountain Trilogy, It’s A Wonderful Life: A Radio Show), Thomasin Savaiano ( Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Man of La Mancha, Southern Crossroads, Smoke on the Mountains trilogy, Diaries of Adam & Eve), David Maga (Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Southern Crossroads, Smoke on the Mountain trilogy, Miracle on 34th Street, Sherlock Holmes, The Final Adventure), James Laster (Gin Game, Miracle on 34th Street, Unnecessary Farce, A Christmas Carol, Foxfire, It’s A Wonderful Life), Sarah Blackwell (Miracle on 34th Street, Comedy of Errors, and It’s A Wonderful Life), Dacia Dick (Unnecessary Farce, Southern Crossroads, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story), Molly Knudsen (Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Carol, and Comedy of Errors);  Cody Murphy (Man of La Mancha, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, Miracle on 34th Street),  Aviva Pressman (Miracle on 34th Street, Man of La Mancha, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure); Jayson Belew (Miracle on 34th Street, Man of La Mancha, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure), and newcomer to Wayside Theatre main stage, Eddie Staver (The Midsummer’s Night Dream).

Harvey is directed by Warner Crocker, Artistic Director.  The production is designed by Til Turner, Set Designer and Technical Director, Paul Callahan, Lighting Designer and Steve Przybylski, Sound Designer, and Tamara Carruthers, Costume Designer.

Performance Schedule and Ticket Prices

Harvey begins performances with one low priced performance at 2:30 pm on Saturday, March 27.  The official opening night is Sunday, March 28 at 6:30 p.m.  Performances will continue through April 24.  Ticket prices are $25 to $30 dollars for adults. Prices for children 17 and under are $10 for any show.  Ask about discounts available for students and seniors. Group discounts are also available. Wayside Theatre also sells discounted subscriptions for the entire season with options that fit any budget and any schedule.

Performances each week for Harvey will be Saturday matinees at 2:30 p.m.; Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening at 7:30 pm; and Saturday matinees at 2:30 p.m.. There will be two Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. – on April 11 and 18.  (The Theatre is closed on Easter Sunday.)

*****

Wayside Theatre is the oldest professional theatre in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and is celebrating its 48th season of presenting high quality, professional entertainment in 2009-2010. Single tickets and group  packages can be obtained by calling the Box Office at (540) 869-1776.  The 2010-2011 Season Subscription is on sale now. The 49th Season begins on June 5, 2010 through April 23, 2011. Call the box office to order your next season subscription.

Visit the Wayside Theater web site.

Location: Wayside Theatre is located in Middletown, Virginia on Route 11, Main Street, just north of the intersection of I-66 and I-81.

Music on Main during 2009.

Woodstock, VA – The beautiful, historic town of Woodstock, Virginia has announced their Event Schedule for the rest of 2010, and there’s something fun for young and old alike. Make plans to attend today. These events are free, open to the public, and are all outdoors. Grab your family, relax and enjoy!

Music on Main – Concerts in the Park Series – from 7 to 9 p.m.
- Friday, May 28, 2010 featuring The Amazing Country Band
- Friday, July 2, 2010 featuring The Bill Vaughan Band
- Friday, August 20, 2010 featuring The Amanda Wilkins Band
- Friday, September 10, 2010 featuring John Richards
and the Virginians

Dancin’ in the Street – June 25, 2010 – 5 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Featuring The Robbie Limon Band – Music, food, arts and crafts, children’s activities and wine tastings.

Fireworks – Saturday, July 3, 2010 – 9:30 p.m.
Shenandoah County Fair Grounds, in Woodstock, VA
Rain date: Saturday, July 10, 2010

Route 11 Yard Crawl – Saturday, August 14, 2010
Beginning at 7:30 a.m. – 43+ miles of yard sales along historic Route 11 in Shenandoah County, including Woodstock, VA

Halloween on Court Square – Saturday, October 30, 2010
From 1 to 2:30 p.m.

Light up Woodstock – Friday, December 3, 2010 – 6:00 p.m.

Discover Christmas in Woodstock – Holiday Shopping Specials
Saturday, December 4, 2010- 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

For more information, call (540) 459-3621 or visit the town of Woodstock web site.

Richmond, VA – Hey kids! Eat those veggies for your school lunch! Especially if they’re grown just down the street!  During the 2010 Virginia General Assembly Session, House Joint Resolution 95 (HJ95), introduced by Delegate Edward Scott representing Culpeper, Madison and Orange County, Virginia, officially establishing a “Virginia Farm-to-School Week” was passed with unanimous consent by both the House of Delegates and Senate.

Besides establishing a Virginia Farm-to-School Week during the second week of November, HJ95 recognizes the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Virginia Department of Education, Virginia Food System Council, and Virginia Farm-to-School Work Group for their many contributions to help develop, promote, and implement Virginia’s Farm-to-School Program.

“This is a beginning step in changing the quality of school nutrition while providing economic opportunities for our farming community and strengthening farm-to-table connections throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia,” said Christopher Carpenter, Special Projects Coordinator for Washington & Lee University, and Vice-Chair of the Virginia Food System Council.

In 2009, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Virginia Department of Education and Virginia Farm-to-School Work Group coordinated the first Farm-to-School Week, where all regions of Virginia participated. Thirty-six different locally grown Virginia foods were featured as healthy choices on school menus across the state.

School districts including Madison County, Rappahannock County, Harrisonburg City and Goochland County all participated as part of the initial Week and featured school lunches made from local farm products.

“Virginia’s Farm-to-School Program is a true “win-win”. Our students benefit from being served fresh, local food at school. These same schools represent a significant new market opportunity for Virginia farmers. It is my pleasure to bring this resolution before the General Assembly and to call attention to Farm-to-School Week in the Commonwealth,” said Delegate Ed Scott.

In 2007, recognizing the problems associated with childhood obesity and the search to open additional markets for fresh farm products in Virginia, the General Assembly passed Senate Joint Resolution 347, which requested that the Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry and the Secretary of Education establish a similar Farm-to-School Task Force to develop a plan for implementing a Farm-to-School Program in the Commonwealth.

By the numbers
Since then, there has been a 300 percent increase in locally grown foods served in public and private schools. Virginia public schools serve 681,505 lunches daily to nourish their students, resulting in more than 122 million lunches served during a 180-day school year.

If only 25 cents per day per student lunch is devoted to purchasing locally grown Virginia farm products, a total of $170,376 would be generated daily and more than $30.7 million would be reinvested annually in Virginia communities and the economy.

Harrisonburg, VA – “Love By The Glass” is the theme of the Celebrate Virginia Wine Week being held March 22-28 at many locations across the state. In Harrisonburg, Virginia, a number of local restaurants will be participating in the day-long event on March 28, 2010, including:

- The Local Chop and Grill House
56 West Gay St, Harrisonburg, VA 22802

- Joshua Wilton Restaurant
412 S. Main St, Harrisonburg, VA 22801

- L’Italian Restaurant
815 E. Market St, Harrisonburg, VA 22801

- Downtown Wine & Gourmet
41 Court Square, Suite C, Harrisonburg, VA 22801

Contact the restaurants for more information, or visit this web site for more details.

*****

Virginia Wine Week promotes restaurants and wine shops who offer Virginia wine for sale by the glass.

- “Virginia Wine Week is an exciting new partnership to expand local wine offerings in our restaurants and shops,” said Annette Boyd, Director of the Virginia Wine Marketing Office.

- “As Virginia’s reputation for wine excellence continues to grow, so does demand for our product. Wine lovers now have a new reason to get out and enjoy the success of the Virginia wine industry.”

- “Visitors to Virginia want to experience local history, culture and of course – local food and wine,” said Alisa Bailey, President and CEO of the Virginia Tourism Corporation. “It’s important for visitors to find local wine on menus in Virginia’s restaurants and Virginia Wine Week will help encourage that.”

Do you know?
Virginia is home to more than 155 wineries across the state in nine different wine producing regions. The state is getting national recognition for several varietals including Viognier, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot; and it is producing a growing variety of wines quickly gaining a loyal following including Bordeaux styles blends, sparkling wines and the native varietal Norton.

Virginia was named one of the top five up-and-coming wine destinations by Travel + Leisure magazine in 2007.

Shenandoah National Park – SPRING HIKING – From the Park’s latest press release: “Shenandoah Superintendent Martha Bogle announced that the 12-space “upper lot” on the park boundary at the Ridge Trailhead access for Old Rag Mountain will be permanently closed to public vehicle access and parking.

Temporary signing in the upper and lower lots and at Rt. #600 to advise visitors of the impending upper lot closure has been posted. Park staff will accomplish the closure with the installation of a temporary gate and other barriers by mid-April 2010.

The closure is a result of an Environmental Assessment (EA) entitled “Old Rag Parking Lot,” which included extensive public involvement over a two-year period. The Finding of “No Significant Impact” for that project was approved in June 2009.

The Old Rag Mountain area trails are some of the most popular day and overnight use trail areas in park. Visitation on weekends each day can frequently exceed 500 people completing the 8.8 mile Old Rag circuit hike. Public vehicle parking has been provided at the 12-space National Park Service (NPS) upper parking lot and the leased 250-space lower lot.

Parking space at the upper lot is frequently overwhelmed, resulting in extensive roadside parking which extends on to the road pavement and on private land. Access to the trailhead by emergency vehicles for response to incidents on Old Rag Mountain is hindered by improperly parked visitor vehicles.

It is anticipated that the closure of the NPS upper lot will substantially reduce the conflict and congestion of shared visitor vehicle traffic an pedestrian use on Rt. #600, will minimize road shoulder parking trespass on adjacent private land, and should potentially reduce crowding and resource impacts at the Ridge and Nicholson Hollow Trailheads.

Upon closure of the upper lot to public, vehicle access the site will continue to serve as work trip parking access for PATC and Old Rag Mountain Steward volunteers, and for emergency vehicle and other official park administrative access. For the near future, at least one portable toilet will be maintained on site and most trash receptacles will be kept available.

A new parking lot in the area of Nethers Rt. #600 for Old Rag trail access is planned for future construction.”

Hot Site

Hiking Upward is a great web site that includes details about the Old Rag Mountain hike, including first-hand hiking accounts as well as beautiful photos of the area and trail. It is a strenuous, popular hike.

Or, check out the National Park Service’s web site.

Woodstock, VA – As Spring arrives, we’re reminded to draw joy from the songs of birds and to celebrate the music within us and around us. This email message from Jane Miller is requesting support from Shenandoah County residents who value music and arts education for their children – to show up tonight, March 11, 2010 – at a Shenandoah County Schools meeting to help ensure that funds for the District’s music education program are not cut.

Here is the message:
“Urgent – Please express support for Music Education – Dear Friends,

We wanted to make you aware of a situation which threatens the future of music education in Shenandoah County Public Schools. Right now, the Board of Supervisors is considering cutting all before school morning music activities. For many students, particularly those taking AP classes, this is the only way they can participate in music at their school.

There is a public hearing tomorrow night at 5 pm at Peter Muhlenberg Middle School in Woodstock, VA and we urge everyone who is interested in music education to attend and show their support for music in our schools.

Hard financial decisions are necessary, but cutting this program is not the way to go. Here is why:

- Music and arts programs were already –under-supported before the budget crunch so cutting them further would be catastrophic;

- Music education advances the curriculum at the schools;

- The amount of savings would be negligible in comparison to the impact it would have on the quality of education at our schools.

Currently, teenagers voluntarily get up early each morning so that they can participate in these programs. Anyone with a teenager knows that for a teen to choose to rise early speaks volumes to how important these programs are to them.

It is extremely important for voters to come out to voice their support, particularly in light of our county’s history with not supporting the arts. Remember: we are the only county in the surrounding area with no auditorium; Frederick and Warren Counties have an auditorium in each school.

If you can’t make the meeting, please call or e-mail a member of the Shenandoah County School Board today. Here are the e-mail addresses for Board members:

kswhetzel@shenandoah.k12.va.us
rkoontz@holtzmancorp.com
kgholsinger@shenandoah.k12.va.us
glrutz@shenandoah.k12.va.us
skeeter5@shentel.net
swgiersch@shenandoah.k12.va.us
bkrowland@shenandoah.k12.va.us

To clarify: Tonight’s meeting (March 11) at 5 p.m. at Peter Muhlenberg Middle School in Woodstock, VA, is open to the public and we want as many supporters of the arts as possible to attend. Please note that the meeting at which the public may actually speak out is on March 18. The board will then cast their vote on March 25, 2010.

Please come show your support for the arts tonight if you possibly can.”

Martinsburg, WV – Opera singer Jenny Lind, as portrayed by Joann Peterson, will visit the Martinsburg Public Library on Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 7:00.m. in the Martinsburg Room (located at 101 West King Street).

Known as ‘The Swedish Nightingale,” Johanna “Jenny” Lind (1820-1887) started life in foster care, but grew up to be a world known dramatic singer and philanthropist. She was the first woman to be memorialized in Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner.

According to the History Alive! web site, her triumphs on European stages led P.T. Barnum to bring her to the United States in 1850 for a nationwide tour, singing in packed houses across the nation, including Wheeling, West Virginia. She was America’s first celebrity, complete with product endorsements.

This show is free and open to the public. It’s sponsored by the West Virginia Humanities Council’s History Alive! program.

Note: Get set for more of the Lind story – Actress Anne Hathway is reported to have won the part of Jenny Lind in an upcoming Hollywood movie, “The Greatest Showman on Earth,” about circus and entertainment magnate P.T. Barnum. Hugh Jackson will play P.T. Barnum.

Shepherdstown, WV – Fun for all ages. Don’t miss these geeks compete! It’s time to register for Brain Games XIII, a trivia tournament and annual fundraiser for Literacy Volunteers of the Eastern Panhandle (LVEP). The team registration deadline is March 26, 2010.

This fun event will be held Sunday, April 11, 2010 at Ram’s Den at Shepherds University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Brain Games consists of four rounds of 25 trivia questions each. Each team must have a minimum of three and a maximum of six players. The games begin promptly at 1 p.m. (Required check in for teams is between 12:15 – 12:45 p.m. the day of the event.).

The trivia tournament is free for the public.

There will be door prizes, a silent auction and a book exchange. (Donate your used books to the cause.)

It costs $25 per team to enter by the March 26 deadline. Space permitting, teams may enter for a $30 fee up until the event begins on April 11. Space is limited; register your team early.

If you have questions, call (304) 264-0298, send an email to BrainGames2010 at Verizon.net, or visit the BrainGames web site.

There are also registration forms at the Martinsburg Public Library, 101 West King Street, Martinsburg, WV 25401. (Please make checks payable to “LVEP”.)

Martinsburg, West VA – After all of the enthusiasm generated last year in finding the Eastern Panhandle’s largest tree, Delegate John Overington has announced that he’s continuing the hunt. In 2010, he’s looking for the largest oak tree located in Morgan, Berkeley, or Jefferson county in West Virginia, as a way to encourage identification of different species of trees.

Similar to last year, Overington will donate $500 to the person who can find the area’s largest oak tree measured by its height and its diameter a few feet off the ground. The winner will also receive a copy of the poem “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer.

During 2009, 56 people submitted over 60 entries hoping to spot the largest tree (of any type) in the Panhandle. Dan DeSarno submitted the winning entry – a huge sycamore tree outside of Ranson, WV, that is over 20 feet in circumference.

Sara Wuertenberg, a Conservation District Education Outreach Specialist in the area, and Forester Herb Peddicord will assist by compiling and evaluating the entries. Call Sara at (304) 263-4376, extension 116, by June 15, 2010, with the circumference of the oak tree at four feet above the ground and estimate its height.

Delegate Overington’s grandfather, Fred W. Besley, was Maryland’s first state forester, serving in that capacity from 1906-1942. He launched Maryland’s “Big Tree Contest”. Over the years, Delegate Overington and his wife, JoAnn, have planted thousands of trees to carry on the tradition.

Shenandoah National Park, USA – Enjoy nature – Get ready for camping and enjoying the great outdoors with your family! Today, Shenandoah National Park Superintendent Martha Bogle announced that facilities closed during the winter season will begin opening in March, and will continue to open through the Spring. Even though Spring is just around the corner, Shenandoah National Park staff members are continuing the hard work of clearing snow from the unprecedented 2010 winter season.

The March opening dates shown below are tentative – based on Mother Nature and successful snow clearing operations:

Visitor Centers: Harry F. Byrd Visitor Center will open March 26; Dickey Ridge Visitor Center will open on April 1; Loft Mountain Information Center will open on May 14, operating weekends and holidays only.

Campgrounds: Big Meadows Campgrounds
will open on March 26; Lewis Mountain Campground will open on April 9; Mathews Arm Campgrounds will open on May 14; Loft Mountain will open on May 21, pending completion of a construction project to rehabilitate roads in the area.

Picnic Grounds: Elkwallow, Pinnacles, South River and Dundo Picnic Grounds are currently open. The remaining picnic grounds will operate as follows: Big Meadows Picnic Grounds will open March 26; Dickey Ridge will open on April 1; and Lewis Mountain Picnic Grounds will open April 9. Loft Mountain Picnic
Ground remains closed.

Concession-operated Restaurants, Lodges and Associated Facilities: Big Meadows Wayside will open March 19; Skyland Resort will open on April 1; Big Meadows Shower/Laundry will open on March 26; Lewis Mountain Cabins and Lewis Mountain Campstore will open on April 9; Elkwallow Wayside will open on April 16; Loft Mountain Wayside will open on April 30; Big Meadows Lodge will open on May 20; Loft Mountain Campstore and Loft Mountain Shower and Laundry will open on May 21.

For more information about planning a trip to Shenandoah National Park, call the park at (540) 999-3500, or visit their web site.

Strasburg, VA – Just announced! EarthKorps is proud to present the “Shenandoah Riverside Festival,” a low-cost family weekend camping trip that also supports taking care of the Shenandoah River cleaning up our environment.

Mark your calendars for April 30, May 1 and May 2 – for three days of music and camping in Strasburg, Virginia, right along the beautiful, historic Shenandoah River. (The River is a tributary of the Potomac River, approximately 150 miles (241 km) long, in the U.S. states of Virginia and West Virginia.)

Strasburg is in the Shenandoah Valley – at the crossroads of Route 66 into Washington D.C., and Interstate 81. Like many of the small towns that dot the Valley, Strasburg sits on Old Valley Pike (Route 11), and the river runs alongside the road in many places. Skyline Drive is only about 10 miles away.

Music groups performing during the River camp-out include these bands:

- On The Bus
- Lagerhead
- George Wesley & Small Axe Orchestra
- Joe Herbert & Indoe Loop
- David Frye
- Steal The Prize
- GAC Bluegrass Band
- Jake and Burtones
- Scott Murray – Ambrose Dilemma
- Rick Harris Jr. – Mark Barreres
- Friends ‘O The Shenandacky

One low price ($35) covers the entire weekend of camping for your group, or pay $20 for a one-day pass (Saturday night). There is limited vending available for this event. There is plenty of hiking nearby.

100 percent of the proceeds will benefit the continued clean up of the Shenandoah River.

Earth Korps – the sponsor of the weekend – is a non-profit organization in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley that was started by a river enthusiast that goes by the name of “Captain” Beau Morgan in 2009. The whole purpose of the project is to clean up the physical pollution that is desecrating the Shenandoah’s natural beauty.

This week, Earth Korps organizers spoke little about the background and the need for the clean up event, remarking:

“Since 2005, the Shenandoah River has experienced a series of fish kills every spring that have affected several of its native fish species. In the spring of 2005, redbreast sunfish and small mouth bass along 100-mile (160 km) stretch of the South Fork Shenandoah River began dying of lesions caused by bacteria and fungi.

Basically there’s a problem, not only in chemical pollution destroying the quality of the water, but also hugely in part by physical pollution. The river is absolutely, quite literally, littered with everything from tires, cans, and plastic, to shopping carts, lawnmowers, and vehicles. There needs to be a change. The river needs help, and that’s where we all come in.”

Spread the news!

If you’d like more information about the Shenandoah Riverside Festival, or if you’d like to contribute your time and energy to this worthy event, email: lazarus_11 at hotmail.com, or visit the Earth Korps web site.

Woodstock, VA – How will budget cuts in Richmond affect the kids of Virginia? Citizens are urged to come listen to and discuss the budget funding issues for the Shenandoah County School District at a special meeting on Monday night, March 22, 2010.

Dr. Keith Rowland, Superintendent of Shenandoah County Schools, will be the guest speaker. With the school board facing serious budget cuts from Richmond, Dr. Rowland will discuss how these cuts will affect local Shenandoah County schools and students. The public is invited.

Date and Time:
March 22, 2010 at 7 p.m.

Meeting Location:
Shenandoah County Government Center, on Route 11, on the northern end of Woodstock, VA.

Light refreshments will be served before the meeting, which is sponsored by the Republican Women of Shenandoah County organization.

Richmond, VA – Mark Obenshain, Virginia State Senator from the Shenandoah Valley issued the following statement (via email) this week, entitled: “My Votes on the Budget and Senate Leadership Playing Games.” In the email, he explains why he voted against the Virginia Senate budget bill that just passed, and which is now headed to the Virginia House for approval.

One of the main reasons Obershain voted “nay” was the 320 million dollars in new user fees that the budget will enact to raise revenues – relying on increasing the cost of a variety of services within the Commonwealth. Raising “user fees” – as opposed to raising taxes, which is not popular – is a trend across the country which means that regular citizens end up paying more for the basic “tools” they need to survive economically. (At the same time, citizens are seeing educational programs that benefit their children cut back.)

In fact, many of the user fees proposed will be on items that working Virginians need every year: including increased fees for car registration, drivers licenses, insurance coverage, and college courses, among others. These new fees, Obenshain says, will place more economic strain on the backs of already-struggling Virginians – whether they’re employed, underemployed, or unemployed.

Obenshain writes:
“About two weeks ago, the Democratic leadership of the Senate of Virginia decided that bills could die in subcommittee. The Rules of the Senate had not been amended, and no new interpretation was advanced: it’s just the way things are going to be.

And, so it is. Fast forward to this past Thursday, when a special subcommittee in Senate Courts of Justice, created for the express purpose of bottling up bills (mostly gun bills) the committee’s chairman doesn’t like, met and killed bill after bill.

They killed a dozen bills in that meeting, denying the full committee the opportunity to vote on them, as has always been the Senate’s policy (subcommittees make recommendations, but, until now, never had the power to kill a bill). These weren’t off the wall bills, either. Every one of them passed the House with bipartisan majorities and at least sixty-one votes. Eleven had seventy or more votes, five had 87-plus votes, and three actually passed the House unanimously. Yet these bills were evidently too much for the special subcommittee, which decided not to let them see the light of day. Stay tuned on this issue.

This new hardball tactic, which may be inconsistent with the Senate Rules, has garnered a lot of attention of late, and rightly so, but the budget remains everyone’s top concern.

Last week, I joined nine other Senators in voting against the Senate Budget. I would like to take a few moments of your time to explain the reasons for those votes.

I imagine that most are aware of some of the ways the budget impacts education, health, and essential services, and my colleagues and I have been working hard to keep these cuts to a minimum and to restore funding to essential programs wherever possible. I outlined many of these concerns in my last email, and will not reiterate them all here, but I will note a few areas where improvements have been made since that time.

Two Sundays ago, the two money committees met in succession to consider and adopt the budget amendments recommended by their subcommittees, and the budget bills, with those amendments, went before their respective chambers.

The Senate passed a budget last week albeit without my vote and sent it to the House. The House, meanwhile, sent us their budget bill. Since there were inevitably significant differences between the two budgets, the budget bill then went to conference, where conferees from both chambers meet to produce a bill sent to an up-or-down (yes or no) vote in both chambers.

The Senate’s conferees are guided, in part, by the Senate Budget and floor action on the House budget as well as any concerns or priorities they bring to the process individually. The conferees began to meet in earnest this past Thursday.

It is certainly my hope that I will be able to vote for the budget before me at that time, but as I mentioned earlier in this email, I voted against the Senate Budget a week and I do want to provide you with the reasons for that decision.

Both chambers were confronted with very difficult choices, and I appreciate the hard work of the Senate Finance Committee, but I believe that, on the whole, the House Appropriations Committee reported a better budget one that rejects new or increased fees, in contrast to the Senate budget, which contains in excess of $320 million in new fees, and perhaps far more, since a number of sizable fee increases do not yet have a revenue estimate.

It’s a long list, with new or higher fees for vehicle registration, telephones (both cellular and land lines), court appearances, hotel amenities, drivers’ license reinstatement, college courses, property and casualty insurance, wells and sewage systems, access to various records, marriage licenses, wine, and more. Sometimes it seems as if government is on an unending quest to tax every element of our lives, and the Senate budget bill does little to dispel this notion.

In addition to its reliance upon new and increased fees, the Senate budget relies heavily upon the time tested (unsuccessfully of late) strategy of inflating certain revenue estimates. In this instance, there are about $200 million of highly questionable projected revenue increases. Included in these projected revenues are increases in tobacco tax receipts and ABC profits and fewer claimed conservation tax credits.

To call these projections optimistic is being kind. First, tobacco use is on a downswing and taxes have not been increased, so the estimated increase in tobacco tax revenue is a total mystery. Second, since ABC stores are now allowed to stay open 7 days a week in several jurisdictions, increased profits have been projected.

Skeptics might suggest that the market for spirits will remain the same, but the sales will be spread across 7 days rather than 6 (not to mention the increased operational expenses). Third and finally, no explanation whatsoever was attached by budget writers to the anticipated windfall flowing from their belief that in each of the next two years landowners will claim $50 million less in land conservation tax credits if they are in error, that’s a $100 million hole in the budget.

Add to that an attempt to undermine the abolition of parole through the budget process and I have some real reservations about the Senate Budget. Still worse, the Senate Budget is far more reliant than its House counterpart on the assumption the hope, really that the state will receive a six month extension of enhanced Medicaid funding from the federal government, which is by no means a given. Both budgets make provision for the extra funding, but the Senate Budget is somewhat more free in dedicating the funding to essential programs. The House makes this money available for a second tier of priorities: if we get it, great, and if not, we’ll manage. With the Senate Budget, however, we’re in a far greater rut if those dollars fail to come through.

Both the House and Senate budgets made significant improvement to public education and health funding over what had been discussed in recent weeks, covered in part by additional federal funding for which Virginia qualified this past Thursday, and in larger part by a proposal by Governor McDonnell that adjust how and when the Commonwealth funds certain future pension liabilities, without changing actual compensation for existing state and local employees one iota.

I have been pleased to see significant progress made in these areas, with both budgets backfilling some of the previously planned cuts to local education and restoring Medicaid waivers for community-directed care. These community-based waivers provide a valuable alternative to institutional care for the elderly and those with disabilities a situation that favors the elderly and those with disabilities, their families, and the taxpayers, as community-based care is significantly more cost-effective than institutional care.

Neither budget, unfortunately, reflected the sort of systematic review that I would prefer, though time constraints made a more thorough examination difficult. Nevertheless, it is vitally important that, as soon as we have the budget process and this session behind us, we pour our efforts into reviewing our budget priorities. Governor McDonnell plans to convene a government reform commission, and it is my hope that they will approach the entirety of Virginia’s budget with detail and an eye to serious reform, not just cuts.

The House budget came closer to the sort of structural reform we need than did the Senate budget, and the Governor made several very good proposals on this count, but each budget proposal fell short of the sort of reform that Virginia’s long-term fiscal health will require.

I certainly do not favor all the budget amendments within the House bill, any more than I would endorse all provisions of the Senate bill. I am concerned about reductions and consolidation in the cooperative extension program, which is so important to agricultural communities, and the House bill makes a number of cuts to education that I would prefer to offset elsewhere.

What finally emerges will of necessity be a compromise between competing proposals, but sometimes compromise can be a good thing, and I look forward to carefully reviewing the budget that emerges from conference committee in the coming days. For the present, I voted against the Senate Budget given my concern about new fees this budget would impose on Virginia taxpayers and to express my reservations about a number of other provisions in the bill.

It is my hope that the conferees will return with a fiscally responsible budget that I will be able to support. I will continue to keep you apprised of further action on the budget.”

Shenandoah Valley, VA – This Spring, the Shenandoah County Parks and Recreation Department is featuring some activities for dog owners and dog lovers, as well as courses in basic computing.

Here’s the scoop on the classes, as well as some crazy, fun, cute photos of dogs doing their thing on the Internet and in front (and on!) the computer screen. Enjoy!

ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO COMPUTERS
(Ages 18 and over)  Your new PC just arrived.  You open the box, excited to hook it up, start surfing the web, send emails, and then you see all of the cords, CDs, and parts that need to be connected and installed and suddenly it doesn’t seem like so much fun anymore.  Don’t panic!  Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Computer Basics can help; learn how to use Windows and a word processor, connect to the Internet and surf the web, read and write email, view and edit digital photos, and new devices, such as printers, and perform basic maintenance and security tasks.

This class will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, March 23 to April 1, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm, at the Shenandoah County Government Center in Woodstock, VA.   The cost is $95; please register with Lord Fairfax Community College (LFCC) on their web site, or call LFCC at 800-906-5322, extension x7021.

SECURITY AND MAINTENANCE FOR YOUR HOME COMPUTER
(Ages 18 and over)  Keep your computer secure!  This class is designed for the home user.  Understand the security risks you can encounter and the actions needed to overcome these risks.  Become skilled with user account types and management; how to install, update, and uninstall software and hardware and hard drive maintenance.  Discover what email spam and phishing are and how to protect your computer from them.  Also covered are topics on installing and using firewall and Internet Explore settings.

This class will be held on Thursday, April 22, 6:00 to 9:00pm, at the Shenandoah County Government Center in Woodstock, VA.  The cost is $35. (See registration information in the entry above.)

BEGINNING DOG OBEDIENCE
(For dogs, 4 months +)  This class will provide you with the instruction to train and control your dog.  Through a logical class progression, you’ll train your dog to sit on command, stand, lie down, stay, come, and heel at your side on a loose leash.  You will also be introduced to play scent work, retrieve, hand signals, teaching some tricks and begin teaching your dog to go to a run and stay there.

The first class is orientation for dog owners; no dogs, please.  All dogs must have their second series of immunizations (including Bordatella) before the first class.  Class will run on Mondays, April 5 to May 10 or May 17 to June 28, from 6:30 to 7:30pm at the Old Edinburg School in Edinburg, VA.  The cost is $103/dog, and the deadline to register is the Friday before each class.

INTERMEDIATE DOG OBEDIENCE
(For dogs, 5 months +)  This class is intended for dogs and handlers who have completed any basic dog obedience class and wish to refine their dog’s performance and reliability.  Focus is placed on individual problems, leadership, and communication with your dog.  Classes will be active with lots of practice during the class hour.  Basic commands will be improved and training for reliable responses to both voice commands and silent signals will be reviewed.

The first class is orientation for dog owners; no dogs, please.  All dogs must have their second series of immunizations (including Bordatella) before the first class.  Class will run on Mondays, April 5- to May 10 or May 17 to June 28, from 7:30 – 8:30 pm at the Old Edinburg School in Edinburg, VA.  The cost is $103/dog, and the deadline to register is the Friday before each class.

Call the Shenandoah County Parks and Recreation Department at (540) 984-3030, or visit their web site.

On a web site dedicated to transcendentalism, a commentator writes: “Thoreau definitely liked to see the world as microcosm, as here he finds the pattern of seasons both in the small (every day in the pond) and the large, as reflecting the great archetypal pattern of death and rebirth. Note that he spent two years, two months and two days at the pond, beginning on July 4th. However, he chose to structure the last part of the book clearly in terms of the seasons – fall, winter (reconsidering the pond and its animals in the winter), and now, triumphantly, spring and the bursting out of life.’)”

As we in the Shenandoah Valley await Spring, here are some words of wisdom and hope from Thoreau, a great observer of Nature and Life Itself:

“Spring” – From Chapter XVII – “The opening of large tracts by the ice-cutters commonly causes a pond to break up earlier; for the water, agitated by the wind, even in cold weather, wears away the surrounding ice. But such was not the effect on Walden that year, for she had soon got a thick new garment to take the place of the old. This pond never breaks up so soon as the others in this neighborhood, on account both of its greater depth and its having no stream passing through it to melt or wear away the ice.

I never knew it to open in the course of a winter, not excepting that of ‘52-3, which gave the ponds so severe a trial. It commonly opens about the first of April, a week or ten days later than Flint’s Pond and Fair-Haven, beginning to melt on the north side and in the shallower parts where it began to freeze.

It indicates better than any water hereabouts the absolute progress of the season, being least affected by transient changes of temperature. A severe cold of a few days duration in March may very much retard the opening of the former ponds, while the temperature of Walden increases almost uninterruptedly. A thrust into the middle of Walden on the 6th of March, 1847, stood at 32°, or freezing point; near the shore at 33°; in the middle of Flint’s Pond, the same day, at 32½°; at a dozen rods from the shore, in shallow water, under ice a foot thick, at 36°.

This difference of three and a half degrees between the temperature of the deep water and the shallow in the latter pond, and the fact that a great proportion of it is comparatively shallow, show why it should break up so much sooner than Walden. The ice in the shallowest part was at this time several inches thinner than in the middle. In mid-winter the middle had been the warmest and the ice thinnest there.

So, also, every one who has waded about the shores of the pond in summer must have perceived how much warmer the water is close to the shore, where only three or four inches deep, than a little distance out, and on the surface where it is deep, than near the bottom.

In spring the sun not only exerts an influence through the increased temperature of the air and earth, but its heat passes through ice a foot or more thick, and is reflected from the bottom in shallow water, and so also warms the water and melts the under side of the ice, at the same time that it is melting it more directly above, making it uneven, and causing the air bubbles which it contains to extend themselves upward and downward until it is completely honey-combed, and at last disappears suddenly in a single spring rain.

Ice has its grain as well as wood, and when a cake begins to rot or “comb,” that is, assume the appearance of honey-comb, whatever may be its position, the air cells are at right angles with what was the water surface.

Where there is a rock or a log rising near to the surface the ice over it is much thinner, and is frequently quite dissolved by this reflected heat; and I have been told that in the experiment at Cambridge to freeze water in a shallow wooden pond, though the cold air circulated underneath, and so had access to both sides, the reflection of the sun from the bottom more than counterbalanced this advantage.

When a warm rain in the middle of the winter melts off the snow-ice from Walden, and leaves a hard dark or transparent ice on the middle, there will be a strip of rotten though thicker white ice, a rod or more wide, about the shores, created by this reflected heat. Also, as I have said, the bubbles themselves within the ice operate as burning-glasses to melt the ice beneath.

Every morning, generally speaking, the shallow water is being warmed more rapidly than the deep, though it may not be made so warm after all, and every evening it is being cooled more rapidly until the morning. The day is an epitome of the year. The night is the winter, the morning and evening are the spring and fall, and the noon is the summer.

The cracking and booming of the ice indicate a change of temperature. One pleasant morning after a cold night, February 24th, 1850, having gone to Flint’s Pond to spend the day, I noticed with surprise, that when I struck the ice with the head of my axe, it resounded like a gong for many rods around, or as if I had struck on a tight drum-head.

The pond began to boom about an hour after sunrise, when it felt the influence of the sun’s rays slanted upon it from over the hills; it stretched itself and yawned like a waking man with a gradually increasing tumult, which was kept up three or four hours. It took a short siesta at noon, and boomed once more toward night, as the sun was withdrawing his influence.

In the right stage of the weather a pond fires its evening gun with great regularity. But in the middle of the day, being full of cracks, and the air also being less elastic, it had completely lost its resonance, and probably fishes and muskrats could not then have been stunned by a blow on it. The fishermen say that the “thundering of the pond” scares the fishes and prevents their biting.

The pond does not thunder every evening, and I cannot tell surely when to expect its thundering; but though I may perceive no difference in the weather, it does. Who would have suspected so large and cold and thick-skinned a thing to be so sensitive? Yet it has its law to which it thunders obedience when it should as surely as the buds expand in the spring. The earth is all alive and covered with papillæ. The largest pond is as sensitive to atmospheric changes as the globule of mercury in its tube.

One attraction in coming to the woods to live was that I should have leisure and opportunity to see the Spring come in. The ice in the pond at length begins to be honey-combed, and I can set my heel in it as I walk. Fogs and rains and warmer suns are gradually melting the snow; the days have grown sensibly longer; and I see how I shall get through the winter without adding to my wood-pile, for large fires are no longer necessary.

I am on the alert for the first signs of spring, to hear the chance note of some arriving bird, or the striped squirrel’s chirp, for his stores must be now nearly exhausted, or see the woodchuck venture out of his winter quarters. On the 13th of March, after I had heard the bluebird, song sparrow, and red-wing, the ice was still nearly a foot thick.

As the weather grew warmer it was not sensibly worn away by the water, nor broken up and floated off as in rivers, but, though it was completely melted for half a rod in width about the shore, the middle was merely honey-combed and saturated with water, so that you could put your foot through it when six inches thick; but by the next day evening, perhaps, after a warm rain followed by fog, it would have wholly disappeared, all gone off with the fog, spirited away.

One year I went across the middle only five days before it disappeared entirely. In 1845 Walden was first completely open on the 1st of April; in ‘46, the 25th of March; in ‘47, the 8th of April; in ‘51, the 28th of March; in ‘52, the 18th of April; in ‘53, the 23d of March; in ‘54, about the 7th of April.

Every incident connected with the breaking up of the rivers and ponds and the settling of the weather is particularly interesting to us who live in a climate of so great extremes. When the warmer days come, they who dwell near the river hear the ice crack at night with a startling whoop as loud as artillery, as if its icy fetters were rent from end to end, and within a few days see it rapidly going out.

So the alligator comes out of the mud with quakings of the earth. One old man, who has been a close observer of Nature, and seems as thoroughly wise in regard to all her operations as if she had been put upon the stocks when he was a boy, and he had helped to lay her keel, — who has come to his growth, and can hardly acquire more of natural lore if he should live to the age of Methuselah, — told me, and I was surprised to hear him express wonder at any of Nature’s operations, for I thought that there were no secrets between them — that one spring day he took his gun and boat, and thought that he would have a little sport with the ducks.

There was ice still on the meadows, but it was all gone out of the river, and he dropped down without obstruction from Sudbury, where he lived, to Fair-Haven Pond, which he found, unexpectedly, covered for the most part with a firm field of ice. It was a warm day, and he was surprised to see so great a body of ice remaining.

Not seeing any ducks, he hid his boat on the north or back side of an island in the pond, and then concealed himself in the bushes on the south side, to await them. The ice was melted for three or four rods from the shore, and there was a smooth and warm sheet of water, with a muddy bottom, such as the ducks love, within, and he thought it likely that some would be along pretty soon.

After he had lain still there about an hour he heard a low and seemingly very distant sound, but singularly grand and impressive, unlike anything he had ever heard, gradually swelling and increasing as if it would have a universal and memorable ending, a sullen rush and roar, which seemed to him all at once like the sound of a vast body of fowl coming in to settle there, and, seizing his gun, he started up in haste and excited; but he found, to his surprise, that the whole body of the ice had started while he lay there, and drifted in to the shore, and the sound he had heard was made by its edge grating on the shore, — at first gently nibbled and crumbled off, but at length heaving up and scattering its wrecks along the island to a considerable height before it came to a standstill.

At length the sun’s rays have attained the right angle, and warm winds blow up mist and rain and melt the snowbanks, and the sun, dispersing the mist, smiles on a checkered landscape of russet and white smoking with incense, through which the traveller picks his way from islet to islet, cheered by the music of a thousand tinkling rills and rivulets whose veins are filled with the blood of winter which they are bearing off.

Few phenomena gave me more delight than to observe the forms which thawing sand and clay assume in flowing down the sides of a deep cut on the railroad through which I passed on my way to the village, a phenomenon not very common on so large a scale, though the number of freshly exposed banks of the right material must have been greatly multiplied since railroads were invented.

The material was sand of every degree of fineness and of various rich colors, commonly mixed with a little clay. When the frost comes out in the spring, and even in a thawing day in the winter, the sand begins to flow down the slopes like lava, sometimes bursting out through the snow and overflowing it where no sand was to be seen before. Innumerable little streams overlap and interlace one with another, exhibiting a sort of hybrid product, which obeys half way the law of currents, and half way that of vegetation.

As it flows it takes the forms of sappy leaves or vines, making heaps of pulpy sprays a foot or more in depth, and resembling, as you look down on them, the laciniated, lobed, and imbricated thalluses of some lichens; or you are reminded of coral, of leopard’s paws or birds’ feet, of brains or lungs or bowels, and excrements of all kinds.

It is a truly grotesque vegetation, whose forms and color we see imitated in bronze, a sort of architectural foliage more ancient and typical than acanthus, chiccory, ivy, vine, or any vegetable leaves; destined perhaps, under some circumstances, to become a puzzle to future geologists.

The whole cut impressed me as if it were a cave with its stalactites laid open to the light. The various shades of the sand are singularly rich and agreeable, embracing the different iron colors, brown, gray, yellowish, and reddish. When the flowing mass reaches the drain at the foot of the bank it spreads out flatter into strands, the separate streams losing their semi-cylindrical form and gradually becoming more flat and broad, running together as they are more moist, till they form an almost flat sand, still variously and beautifully shaded, but in which you can trace the original forms of vegetation; till at length, in the water itself, they are converted into banks, like those formed off the mouths of rivers, and the forms of vegetation are lost in the ripple marks on the bottom.

The whole bank, which is from twenty to forty feet high, is sometimes overlaid with a mass of this kind of foliage, or sandy rupture, for a quarter of a mile on one or both sides, the produce of one spring day. What makes this sand foliage remarkable is its springing into existence thus suddenly. When I see on the one side the inert bank, — for the sun acts on one side first, — and on the other this luxuriant foliage, the creation of an hour, I am affected as if in a peculiar sense.

I stood in the laboratory of the Artist who made the world and me. I had come to where he was still at work, sporting on this bank, and with excess of energy strewing his fresh designs about. I feel as if I were nearer to the vitals of the globe, for this sandy overflow is something such a foliaceous mass as the vitals of the animal body.

You find thus in the very sands an anticipation of the vegetable leaf. No wonder that the earth expresses itself outwardly in leaves, it so labors with the idea inwardly. The atoms have already learned this law, and are pregnant by it. The overhanging leaf sees here its prototype.

Thus, also, you pass from the lumpish grub in the earth to the airy and fluttering butterfly. The very globe continually transcends and translates itself, and becomes winged in its orbit. Even ice begins with delicate crystal leaves, as if it had flowed into moulds which the fronds of water plants have impressed on the watery mirror. The whole tree itself is but one leaf, and rivers are still vaster leaves whose pulp is intervening earth, and towns and cities are the ova of insects in their axils.

When the sun withdraws the sand ceases to flow, but in the morning the streams will start once more and branch and branch again into a myriad of others. You here see perchance how blood-vessels are formed.

If you look closely you observe that first there pushes forward from the thawing mass a stream of softened sand with a drop-like point, like the ball of the finger, feeling its way slowly and blindly downward, until at last with more heat and moisture, as the sun gets higher, the most fluid portion, in its effort to obey the law to which the most inert also yields, separates from the latter and forms for itself a meandering channel or artery within that, in which is seen a little silvery stream glancing like lightning from one stage of pulpy leaves or branches to another, and ever and anon swallowed up in the sand.

It is wonderful how rapidly yet perfectly the sand organizes itself as it flows, using the best material its mass affords to form the sharp edges of its channel. Such are the sources of rivers. In the silicious matter which the water deposits is perhaps the bony system, and in the still finer soil and organic matter the fleshy fibre or cellular tissue. What is man but a mass of clay?

The ball of the human finger is but a drop congealed. The fingers and toes flow to their extent from the thawing mass of the body. Who knows what the human body would expand and flow out to under a more genial heaven? Is not the hand a spreading palm leaf with its lobes and veins? The ear may be regarded, fancifully, as a lichen, umbilicaria, on the side of the head, with its lobe or drop. The lip lapses from the sides of the cavernous mouth. The nose is a manifest congealed drop or stalactite. The chin is a still larger drop, the confluent dripping of the face. The cheeks are a slide from the brows into the valley of the face, opposed and diffused by the cheek bones.

Each rounded lobe of the vegetable leaf, too, is a thick and now loitering drop, larger or smaller; the lobes are the fingers of the leaf; and as many lobes as it has, in so many directions it tends to flow, and more heat or other genial influences would have caused it to flow yet farther.

Thus it seemed that this one hillside illustrated the principle of all the operations of Nature. The Maker of this earth but patented a leaf. What Chamollion will decipher this hieroglyphic for us, that we may turn over a new leaf at last? This phenomenon is more exhilarating to me than the luxuriance and fertility of vineyards. True, it is somewhat excrementitious in its character, and there is no end to the heaps of liver, lights, and bowels, as if the globe were turned wrong side outward; but this suggests at least that Nature has some bowels, and there again is mother of humanity.

This is the frost coming out of the ground; this is Spring. It precedes the green and flowery spring, as mythology precedes regular poetry. I know of nothing more purgative of winter fumes and indigestions. It convinces me that Earth is still in her swaddling-clothes, and stretches forth baby fingers on every side. Fresh curls spring from the baldest brow.

There is nothing inorganic. These foliaceous heaps lie along the bank like the slag of a furnace, showing that Nature is “in full blast” within. The earth is not a mere fragment of dead history, stratum upon stratum like the leaves of a book, to be studied by geologists and antiquaries chiefly, but living poetry like the leaves of a tree, which precede flowers and fruit, — not a fossil earth, but a living earth; compared with whose great central life all animal and vegetable life is merely parasitic. Its throes will heave our exuviae from their graves.

You may melt your metals and cast them into the most beautiful moulds you can; they will never excite me like the forms which this molten earth flows out into. And not only it, but the institutions upon it are plastic like clay in the hands of the potter.

Ere long, not only on these banks, but on every hill and plain and in every hollow, the frost comes out of the ground like a dormant quadruped from its burrow, and seeks the sea with music, or migrates to other climes in clouds. Thaw with his gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other but breaks in pieces.

When the ground was partially bare of snow, and a few warm days had dried its surface somewhat, it was pleasant to compare the first tender signs of the infant year just peeping forth with the stately beauty of the withered vegetation  which had withstood the winter, — life-everlasting, golden-rods, pinweeds, and graceful wild grasses, more obvious and interesting frequently than in summer even, as if their beauty was not ripe till then; even cotton-grass, cat-tails, mulleins, johnswort, hard-hack, meadow-sweet, and other strong stemmed plants, those unexhausted granaries which entertain the earliest birds, — decent weeds, at least, which widowed Nature wears.

I am particularly attracted by the arching and sheaf-like top of the wool-grass; it brings back the summer to our winter memories, and is among the forms which art loves to copy, and which, in the vegetable kingdom, have the same relation to types already in the mind of man that astronomy has. It is an antique style, older than Greek or Egyptian. Many of the phenomena of Winter are suggestive of an inexpressible tenderness and fragile delicacy. We are accustomed to hear this king described as a rude and boisterous tyrant; but with the gentleness of a lover he adorns the tresses of Summer.

At the approach of spring the red squirrels got under my house, two at a time, directly under my feet as I sat reading or writing, and kept up the queerest chuckling and chirruping and vocal pirouetting and gurgling sounds that ever were heard; and when I stamped they only chirruped the louder, as if past all fear and respect in their mad pranks, defying humanity to stop them. No, you don’t — chickaree — chickaree. They were wholly deaf to my arguments, or failed to perceive their force, and fell into a strain of invective that was irresistible.

The first sparrow of spring! The year beginning with younger hope than ever! The faint silvery warblings heard over the partially bare and moist fields from the blue-bird, the song-sparrow, and the red-wing, as if the last flakes of winter tinkled as they fell! What at such a time are histories, chronologies, traditions, and all written revelations? The brooks sing carols and glees to the spring. The marsh-hawk, sailing low over the meadow, is already seeking the first slimy life that awakes.

The sinking sound of melting snow is heard in all dells, and the ice dissolves apace in the ponds. The grass flames up on the hillsides like a spring fire, –  — as if the earth sent forth an inward heat to greet the returning sun; not yellow but green is the color of its flame; — the symbol of perpetual youth, the grass-blade, like a long green ribbon, streams from the sod into the summer, checked indeed by the frost, but anon pushing on again, lifting its spear of last year’s hay with the fresh life below.

It grows as steadily as the rill oozes out of the ground. It is almost identical with that, for in the growing days of June, when the rills are dry, the grass-blades are their channels, and from year to year the herds drink at this perennial green stream, and the mower draws from it betimes their winter supply. So our human life but dies down to its root, and still puts forth its green blade to eternity.

Walden is melting apace. There is a canal two rods wide along the northerly and westerly sides, and wider still at the east end. A great field of ice has cracked off from the main body. I hear a song sparrow singing from the bushes on the shore. He too is helping to crack it. How handsome the great sweeping curves in the edge of the ice, answering somewhat to those of the shore, but more regular! It is unusually hard, owing to the recent severe but transient cold, and all watered or waved like a palace floor.

But the wind slides eastward over its opaque surface in vain, till it reaches the living surface beyond. It is glorious to behold this ribbon of water sparkling in the sun, the bare face of the pond full of glee and youth, as if it spoke the joy of the fishes within it, and of the sands on its shore — a silvery sheen as from the scales of a leuciscus, as it were all one active fish. Such is the contrast between winter and spring. Walden was dead and is alive again.  But this spring it broke up more steadily, as I have said.

The change from storm and winter to serene and mild weather, from dark and sluggish hours to bright and elastic ones, is a memorable crisis which all things proclaim. It is seemingly instantaneous at last. Suddenly an influx of light filled my house, though the evening was at hand, and the clouds of winter still overhung it, and the eaves were dripping with sleety rain.

I looked out the window, and lo! where yesterday was cold gray ice there lay the transparent pond already calm and full of hope as in a summer evening, reflecting a summer evening sky in its bosom, though none was visible overhead, as if it had intelligence with some remote horizon.

I heard a robin in the distance, the first I had heard for many a thousand years, methought, whose note I shall not forget for many a thousand more — the same sweet and powerful song as of yore. O the evening robin, at the end of a New England summer day!

If I could ever find the twig he sits upon! I mean he; I mean the twig. This at least is not the Turdus migratorius. The pitch-pines and shrub-oaks about my house, which had so long drooped, suddenly resumed their several characters, looked brighter, greener, and more erect and alive, as if effectually cleansed and restored by the rain. I knew that it would not rain any more.

You may tell by looking at any twig of the forest, ay, at your very wood-pile, whether its winter is past or not. As it grew darker, I was startled by the honking of geese flying low over the woods, like weary travellers getting in late from Southern lakes, and indulging at last in unrestrained complaint and mutual consolation. Standing at my door, I could bear the rush of their wings; when, driving toward my house, they suddenly spied my light, and with hushed clamor wheeled and settled in the pond. So I came in, and shut the door, and passed my first spring night in the woods.

In the morning I watched the geese from the door through the mist, sailing in the middle of the pond, fifty rods off, so large and tumultuous that Walden appeared like an artificial pond for their amusement. But when I stood on the shore they at once rose up with a great flapping of wings at the signal of their commander, and when they had got into rank circled about over my head, twenty-nine of them, and then steered straight to Canada, with a regular honk from the leader at intervals, trusting to break their fast in muddier pools. A ”plump” of ducks rose at the same time and took the route to the north in the wake of their noisier cousins.

For a week I heard the circling, groping clangor of some solitary goose in the foggy mornings, seeking its companion, and still peopling the woods with the sound of a larger life than they could sustain. In April the pigeons were seen again flying express in small flocks, and in due time I heard the martins twittering over my clearing, though it had not seemed that the township contained so many that it could afford me any, and I fancied that they were peculiarly of the ancient race that dwelt in hollow trees ere white men came.

In almost all climes the tortoise and the frog are among the precursors and heralds of this season, and birds fly with song and glancing plumage, and plants spring and bloom, and winds blow, to correct this slight oscillation of the poles and preserve the equilibrium of nature.

As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age. –

“Eurus ad Auroram Nabathæaque regna recessit,
Persidaque, et radiis juga subdita matutinis.”"The East-Wind withdrew to Aurora and the Nabathean kingdom,
And the Persian, and the ridges placed under the morning rays.

***

Man was born. Whether that Artificer of things,
The origin of a better world, made him from the divine seed;
Or the earth, being recent and lately sundered from the high
Ether, retained some seeds of cognate heaven.”

A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts. We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty.

We loiter in winter while it is already spring. In a pleasant spring morning all men’s sins are forgiven. Such a day is a truce to vice. While such a sun holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return. Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.

You may have known your neighbor yesterday for a thief, a drunkard, or a sensualist, and merely pitied or despised him, and despaired of the world; but the sun shines bright and warm this first spring morning, re-creating the world, and you meet him at some serene work, and see how it is exhausted and debauched veins expand with still joy and bless the new day, feel the spring influence with the innocence of infancy, and all his faults are forgotten.

There is not only an atmosphere of good will about him, but even a savor of holiness groping for expression, blindly and ineffectually perhaps, like a new-born instinct, and for a short hour the south hill-side echoes to no vulgar jest. You see some innocent fair shoots preparing to burst from his gnarled rind and try another year’s life, tender and fresh as the youngest plant. Even he has entered into the joy of his Lord. Why the jailer does not leave open his prison doors, — why the judge does not dismiss his case, — why the preacher does not dismiss his congregation! It is because they do not obey the hint which God gives them, nor accept the pardon which he freely offers to all.

“A return to goodness produced each day in the tranquil and beneficent breath of the morning, causes that in respect to the love of virtue and the hatred of vice, one approaches a little the primitive nature of man, as the sprouts of the forest which has been felled. In like manner the evil which one does in the interval of a day prevents the germs of virtues which began to spring up again from developing themselves and destroys them…”

*****

As a student of Thoreau writes: “Thoreau makes a big deal out of sleeping (winter) and waking (spring), and his desire to awaken the sleepwalkers around him.”

This text from Walden Pond is from American Transcendentalism Web. To view more selections by Thoreau, and other writers of the genre, click here.

Here is the website for the Walden Pond State Reservation site in Massachusetts.

Front Royal, VA – The Warren County Extension Office will be holding a Container Vegetable Gardening and Food Preservation class on Saturday, March 20, 2010.

If you lack the space or time to manage an in-ground vegetable garden this year, but still want to grow your own food and produce, then this class is just for you!

You’ll learn the techniques necessary to plant a success container garden and the proper methods to preserve your home-grown goodies for year-round enjoyment. You’ll receive gardening literature, container gardening materials and complimentary pressure canner testing after the lesson. (Please bring all your canning supplies.)

The one-day course will be presented by Carolyn Hathaway, a Home Horticulture Technician, and Brittany Wilkins. Food Nutrition and Health Extension Agent. Plan to attend on Saturday, March 20 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the Warren County Government Center, located at 220 North Commerce Avenue, in Front Royal (Room #601).

Registration Information
The registration deadline is March 18. The cost is $5 per person. Please make checks payable to: “Warren County – VCE”.

Call (540) 635-4549 for more information. Or, visit their web site.

Shenandoah Valley, VA – This snow really will not last forever. Just this week, flocks of birds have been spotted in the Valley, and Spring activities will soon be here!

The Shenandoah County Parks & Recreation (SCPR) department is sponsoring these Spring events… Get ready for Spring shopping. Get ready to plant those flowers, bake those cakes, and hunt for those Easter eggs!

ANNUAL ARTS & CRAFTS SHOW – MARCH 6
With Spring just around the corner, mark your calendar for this annual tradition. Get your craft items ready to sell or just plan to attend and shop for those special birthday or anniversary gifts. The show is set for Saturday, March 6, from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm at Peter Muhlenberg Middle School, in Woodstock, VA. Admission is free for the public. (If you’re interested in attending as a vendor, please contact SCPR for an application. Tables are available for $20 or $35.)

SIMPLY SWEET DESIGNS CAKE DECORATING CONTEST – MARCH 27
(Ages 6 & Over). “Ocean Life” is the theme for the 2nd Annual Contest to be held on March 27. Here is your chance to show off your cake decorating skills. There are categories for all skill levels. Watch as the Old Edinburg School Gym (in Edinburg, VA)  transforms with delectable and delightful cakes! The deadline to register is March 9. Registration fees are $15 for amateurs, $25 for semi-professionals, and $25 for professionals.

There are fondant and frosting divisions, as well as age breakdowns. Contact SCPR for a complete contest description and registration form. (Call 540- 984-3030 or send an email to: scpr at shenandoahcountyva.us.)

ANNUAL EASTER EGG HUNT – MARCH 27
(Ages 3-8 yrs.) The Annual Easter Egg Hunt will be held at Shenandoah County Park on Saturday, March 27. It;slocated in Maurertown, VA. The 3-5 yr. olds will hunt at 10:30 am and the 6-8 yr. olds will follow at 11:00 am. The Easter Bunny will be on-site to help find eggs and to meet the kids. Please bring a camera and your own Easter basket. The cost is $3/child.

KID’S NIGHT OUT – MAY 7
(Ages 5-12 yrs) Parents: Do you want to enjoy an adult-only evening going to the movies or dinner? Or, do you need a night to catch up on errands, shopping, or home projects? If so, drop off your children on Friday, May 7, from 6:00 – 9:30 pm, for a night of fun and games they will enjoy.  A light snack will be provided. The cost for this program is $18/child and the deadline to register is May 5.

Registration Information
All registration can be done in-person at Shenandoah County Parks and Recreation, 508 Piccadilly Street, Edinburg, VA 22824, via their online registration system. Or, you can mail or fax your registration form. (Registration forms are available at the office or online. The  aoffice is open Monday-Friday, 8:30 am to noon, and  1 -to 5:00 p.m.

Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1971, Midori began studying the violin with her mother at the age of three. She and her mother would eventually relocate to New York City where she studied in Julliard’s pre-college program. When she was invited to play as guest soloist for the New York Philharmonic’s traditional New Year’s Eve concert in 1982, she received a standing ovation. This was just the beginning.

In 1986, at the age of 14, she performed at Tanglewood Music Center with the Boston Symphony under the direction of Maestro Leonard Bernstein. During that performance she broke not one but two violin strings. Despite this, her performance was flawless and she didn’t miss a note. At the conclusion of the piece, Maestro Bernstein was brought to his knees before her in awe. The New York Times headline the following morning read “GIRL 14, CONQUERS TANGLEWOOD WITH 3 VIOLINS.”

Nearly 25 years later, she continues to wow audiences around the world. The Baltimore Sun calls her “a superb violinist” and the San Francisco Chronicle says she is one of the “most important violinists of our time.”

Her accompanist, Charles Abramovic, is critically acclaimed for his international performances as a soloist, chamber musician and collaborator with leading instrumentalists and singers. He has performed a vast repertoire on not only the piano but also the harpsichord and fortepiano. He made his solo orchestral debut at the age of 14 with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Since then he has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony, the Colorado Philharmonic, the Florida Philharmonic and the Nebraska Chamber Orchestra. He has given solo recitals throughout the United States, France and Yugoslavia. He has also appeared at major international festivals in Berlin, Salzburg, Bermuda, Dubrovnik, Aspen and Vancouver.

Midori and Charles Abramovic’s appearance for the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival is made possible in part by the non-profit organization Partners in Performance, which aims to keep chamber music alive and accessible.

Partners in Performance was founded with the monetary award that Midori received as part of the coveted Avery Fisher Prize in 2001. Initiated in the wake of arts funding cutbacks across the United States, Partners in Performance aims to stimulate local interest in recitals and chamber music, specifically in smaller outlying communities without the financial resources of major urban centers. It also supports classical music presenters in these communities by offering affordable concerts by major artists. Through Partners in Performance, high profile artists—including Midori—can donate their services for concerts to galvanize community attention and offer support to smaller-scale arts presenters. Visit www.pipmusic.org to learn more.

This program is part of the “MINDS WIDE OPEN: Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts” initiative and is sponsored in part by the Virginia Commission for the Arts.

Tickets go on sale Monday, March 1, 2010 at 9:30 a.m., and can be purchased by calling the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival box office at 540-459-3396 or 800-459-3396. All seating is reserved. Adult tickets are $30 and student tickets are $15. For more information contact the Music Festival or visit us on the web at www.musicfest.org.

Washington D.C. – This week, U.S. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia announced some significant employment funding news for the Shenandoah Valley.

Warner said: “(The Valley) will be receiving a $5 million investment from the economic stimulus package to fund a new program that will train workers for new jobs in the Valley’s emerging green technology manufacturing and renewable energy industries.” The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that the funding will provide workforce training opportunities for more than 1,000 people across 10 counties and six cities in the Valley.

The new program will be called the “Shenandoah Valley Energy Partnership,” and will be spearheaded by the “Shenandoah Valley Workforce Investment Board” (SVWIB). Its partners will include SVWIB’s five one-stop training centers and the region’s three vocational technical centers, including:  Dabney S. Lancaster Community College, Lord Fairfax Community College, Blue Ridge Community College, James Madison University, the Virginia Manufacturer’s Association, and other private sector firms.

Warner remarks, “The formation of the Shenandoah Valley Energy Partnership is exactly the kind of forward-looking collaboration we need to help jump-start our economy and create next-generation jobs in the clean energy field. This investment will play an important role in training workers to fill those jobs and make a lasting economic impact on the entire region.”

Want more information? Contact Warner’s office via his website, or by calling  (202) 224-2023.

Shenandoah National Park, VA – Travel Advisory – The recent severe winter storms have left Shenandoah National Park with heavy accumulations of snow resulting in the complete closure of Skyline Drive.  Although crews are working to open the Drive to visitor use, Park staff anticipates that it will be early March at the earliest before sections of the road can be opened to the public.

Employees have experienced snowdrifts of up to eight feet. Removal of the snow requires extensive loader work due to the depth and density of the snow drifts. Skip Willoughby, Roads Work Leader and 11 year veteran of the Park, said “This is one the heaviest snows and the most we’ve had to deal with since I’ve been at the Park.”

With the depth of the snow, snowplows are unable to gain enough momentum to push snow over the rock walls making it more difficult to clear from road surfaces. Temperatures along the ridge top have not climbed above freezing, resulting in little melting. Additionally, winds continue to blow creating new drifts each night.

Hiking trails remain open to the public via the park boundary, but visitors should expect advanced hiking conditions due to the deep snow pack. Downed and hazard trees may be incurred at any time. Park staff has not assessed trail conditions at this time. Visitors should be aware that boundary parking areas and road shoulder parking may be unavailable due to snowdrifts clearing operations.

Road conditions are updated on the Shenandoah National Park’s main phone line at (540) 999-3500, and on the Shenandoah National Park website.

(Information about the snow clearing operations and a photo gallery illustrating the work in progress are also on the web site. The picture above is provided by Shenandoah National Park.)